Category: Alternative Football

With the National Spring Football League over before it even started in 1990 – and the World League of American Football a few months from kickoff – the battle to fill the spring football void should’ve been over.

It wasn’t.

Before anyone could ask, “What was the NSFL, again?” the United States Football Association entered the picture. On October 8, 1990, it was reported that the USFA would hold a news conference in Portland on October 10 to announce the Oregon city as the first member of the new league. Dick Seuss, coach of the Oregon Thunderbolts semi-pro team, was leading the Portland effort.

“I was in on the first two or three United States Football League meetings, and I think their thoughts at the time were absolutely correct,” USFA commissioner Lou Saban told The World newspaper. “We think spring football can work. Our people have learned from what happened with the USFL. We know that we’re only as strong as our weakest link.”

Saban, of course, was already well-established in the football world, having coached in the NFL, American Football League and college ranks, and earning back-to-back AFL Coach of the Year nods while guiding the Buffalo Bills in 1964 and 1965. By the time the 68-year-old assumed his USFA duties, he had held 15 different coaching posts. The last was a four-game stint with a Minor League Football System team in Georgia (the Middle Georgia Heat Wave) and the three previous to that were at the high school level.

He had developed a reputation for abruptly quitting jobs, leaving the Bills twice.

But this was a new gig and new adventure, and he hoped he could help the upstart circuit cull the best parts of the USFL.

“We’re trying to borrow from the USFL name as close as possible,” he said. “We’re still trying to establish a financial foundation. We’re still in the preliminary stage. I think within the next week or so, we’ll have a platform to work from.”

Original plans called for eight to 10 teams to play a March through early July schedule. The first franchises announced were the Portland Predators and Tampa Bay Bandits, and Saban said the league had contacted potential investors in Jacksonville, Miami, Mobile, Salt Lake City, Norfolk, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and Scranton.

Jim Spavital, who was coach of the World Football League’s Chicago Fire and general manager of the USFL’s Michigan Panthers, was supposed to help put together the Tampa Bay entry.

The player pool would be made up of athletes “not quite good enough for the National Football League,” Saban said.

Portland set up tryouts for October 21, and two weeks later, Tampa held its camp with Saban on hand to observe.

“I’ve been involved in football tryouts every year that I can remember for a long time,” Saban told the Tampa Tribune. “I just went through a tryout in Macon where we had 150 guys in the first camp, 100 the second and 125 in the third, and I can tell you they don’t fool you too many times.

“Usually, they can look at the guys running the 40 and doing chin-ups and know right away whether or not they’ve got a chance.”

I have no idea how any of the hopefuls fared in those events.

In fact, I don’t know much of anything involving the USFA after its initial announcement and news of the Oregon and Florida tryouts. Like many other leagues that exist only in theory, it just disappeared.

In February, 1991, Saban announced he was interested in becoming the athletic director at the University of Miami, where he coached from 1977-78. But just a couple of months later he was back coaching, this time at NAIA Division II Peru State in Nebraska. Every story I could find mentioned his job history – sometimes in great detail – but none referenced the United States Football Association or its would-be commissioner.

So we’ll never know what kind of cool rules the USFA would’ve come up with, whether it could’ve snagged a TV contract, and how it would’ve fared trying to occupy the same space as the WLAF. And that’s a shame, because I’ve always felt the rivalry between the Portland Predators and Tampa Bay Bandits could’ve been one of the best in all of sports – at least until the league folded.

I became a fan of Don Maynard in the 1960s and grew obsessed with alternative football in the 1970s, so how come I’m just now learning that Maynard was once the commissioner of an alt-league?

Yep, Joe Namath’s favorite target was also the top administrator of the National Spring Football League, which was formed in 1990 with a projected start date of 1991.

News of the NSFL dates back to early January, 1990, when United Press International reported that the league was looking at placing franchises in cities in Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma, and already had owner commitments for teams in Chicago and Tampa Bay.

By early spring the NSFL had supposedly already finalized its inaugural season plans. The first eight franchises would be located in New Jersey, Chicago, Tampa Bay and Texas – making up the East Division – while Los Angeles, Portland, Sacramento and Hawaii would be in the West. Tentative plans called for either the all-star game or championship to be played in Japan, and future expansion plans included the possibility of placing teams in Australia, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand.

“We feel New Zealand and Australia are the future frontiers of American football,” Maynard told the New York Times. “Because of the sporting backgrounds of those nations, it is conceivable teams could be made up utilizing local talent within a period of a few years.”

The cost of a franchise was $125,000, plus $150,000 to be set aside for operation of the league and another $300,000 for what founder and CEO Bill Byrne called a “rainy day fund.”

Teams’ operation cap would be $3.5 million with $1.5 going to salaries.

A 14-game season was to begin in March, 1991, and NBC was touted as a possible TV partner.

One of the reasons I was unfamiliar with the NSFL is probably due to the fact that the National Football League had already announced plans to launch the World League of American Football in 1991 (which included the Birmingham Fire). Also playing in the spring, it was hard to imagine any other league trying to compete with something backed by NFL money.

But Byrne insisted the quality of play in his league would be better.

“We’re not a supplemental league or minor league or a developmental league,” Byrne told the Honolulu Advertiser for a March 27, 1990, story.

Tampa Bay owner Charles Yancy believed sticking to a spring schedule and steering clear of the NFL was the key to sustainability.

“To tell you the truth, the success of the whole league will be up to the owners,” he told UPI. “If we can get the right ownership groups, I know we can have a great league. If we try to go against the NFL, we could have another doomsday. It’s not like 1960, when you can merge with the NFL.

“This is 1990. Things are completely different. We’re not trying to be the NFL. We’re trying to be a professional football league in the spring and summer.”

Byrnes agreed there would never be a suicidal switch to fall, a move that doomed the United States Football League of the early 1980s.

“Hell, no,” Byrnes said. “That’s etched in stone. You’d have to be crazy and stupid to think about taking on the NFL.”

By June the new league held meetings and confirmed that the first six franchises would be placed in Charlotte, Chicago, Ohio, Portland, Southern California and Tampa Bay, and as many as six more would be named at an October summit of NSFL officials.

“I’m very excited with the outcome of these meetings,” Maynard said. “This league will give a lot of opportunities to players, coaches and front office people who might otherwise not get a chance. I think our concept will work.”

Yeah, about that …

The last mention I found of the NSFL came in the October 8, 1990, edition of The World newspaper of Coos Bay, Oregon. In a story about Portland getting a franchise in the newly formed United States Football Association, it was stated that:

Four months ago, a group called the National Spring Football League announced that Portland would be one of its charter members. The NSFL, which also planned to play in the spring, had Hall of Fame receiver Don Maynard as its commissioner. Since then, that effort died off.

The story went on to say that the USFA was trying to pick up where the NSFL left off and had named Lou Saban its commissioner.

Sadly, I never got to enjoy my favorite pass catcher run an off-brand football league. I would have rooted for him and it. But learning about it wasn’t a total loss. If I hadn’t researched this topic, I wouldn’t have found out about the USFA.

That’s the subject of next Monday’s column.

One of the most significant dates in professional football history came on August 14, 1959, when Texas millionaire Lamar Hunt announced the formation of the American Football League.

But how about January 8, 1959?

That was the date the Mid-American Professional Football League was introduced and it seemed, at the time, quite newsworthy. Initially touted as a minor league feeder system for the National Football League, the new circuit quickly set its designs on growing into a second major league before disappearing prior to the AFL’s creation.

It was a short but interesting ride.

Birmingham advertising executive Virgil Pierson, representing an organization called Sports Promotion Enterprises, conducted a meeting in Chicago attended by 17 sports-minded businessmen. Discussed was the formation of a minor football league with franchises in Atlanta, Miami, Houston, New Orleans, Buffalo, Louisville, and Columbus, Ohio, in an Eastern Conference and Denver, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, Memphis, Oklahoma City and St. Louis in the Western Conference of what was tentatively called the East-West Professional Football League.

Pierson said the people involved with the league wanted working agreements with National Football League clubs and serve a similar role that minor league baseball had with the big leagues.

“The league would provide a training ground for collegiate stars not ready to step in with the top pros,” Pierson told United Press International.

Pierson added that the league would be a place for players and coaches who had left the NFL to continue their careers, but it had no intention of competing with the big dogs. In fact, there was talk of playing a spring or summer schedule to avoid conflicts with both the NFL and college ball.

Former New York Giants and Auburn standout Travis Tidwell was helping coordinate the effort.

“The new pro football league could definitely go and give fans the type of football they’d pay to see,” Tidwell said in an interview with UPI.

But just over a month later, what was now known as the Mid-American Professional Football League had much bigger plans.

Tidwell was named president, and UPI reported that delegations representing potential franchises were told the MAPFL would be on the same level as the NFL after just two years of play. Even Pierson admitted he had undersold the league when he first referred to it as “minor.”

On February 14 Tidwell said 23 cities were being considered for the 12 flagship franchises: Atlanta, Miami, St. Petersburg, Charlotte, Shreveport, Louisville, Buffalo, Columbus, Brooklyn, Dallas, Mobile, New Orleans, Denver, Kansas City, Memphis, St Louis, Indianapolis, Phoenix, El Paso, San Antonio, Tulsa, Houston and Minneapolis.

(Kinda weird that Pierson – a guy from Birmingham – was spearheading this league and Birmingham wasn’t considered for a franchise, but whatever).

A meeting was set for February 15 in Memphis and the main order of business would be the awarding of franchises. However, bad weather prevented the gathering from taking place as scheduled so it was postponed.

By late July the Mid-American Professional Football League had morphed into the Trans-America Football Conference, with Tidwell still serving as prez and still planning on a 1960 launch with a minimum of 10 teams. He told UPI the league had changed its name because it “… has mushroomed beyond that now and is truly national in scope.”

But on July 1, NFL commissioner Bert Bell announced that three new football circuits were in the works – the Trans-America, International, and American. Bell said he knew very little about the first two leagues. However, he was aware that Hunt was pushing the American loop. That one, he thought, had the best chance to succeed if it could overcome several major obstacles.

“They’d have to make television arrangements, draw up contracts, draft players, secure stadium rights, arrange publicity, get their franchises and many other details,” Bell told AP.

Turns out, the American Football League did just that, with Hunt announcing that teams in Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, New York, Los Angeles and possibly two other cities would be ready to play in 1960 and vowing it would be a second major league.

As for the International Football League – and East-West Professional Football League/ Mid-American Professional Football League/Trans-America Football Conference – their dreams died with the birth of the AFL.

The IFL was the brainchild of Jack Corbett, who continued to push for a 1961 launch – playing a summer schedule – but it never got off the ground.

Nor did the league proposed by Pierson and Tidwell, who apparently dropped their plans after realizing the AFL had beaten them to the starting line and had all of Hunt’s money behind it.

Perhaps had they gotten an audience with Bell earlier and stuck to the original idea as a farm system, the entire infrastructure of professional football would’ve been dramatically altered thanks to the Mid-American Professional Football League.